Why you don't mess with a 'D!
by tenebrae di oblio
Summary: Hollowfication on a battlefied is terrifying! Now if only a certain admiral had known this beforehand. Rated T for violence, blood and swearing. Ace and Luffy fic, no yaoi.


**A/N: This is another saving Ace story with a twist, it's also a crossover between One Piece and Bleach. BTW I own neither of these stories but really wish that I did. This story has no relation to 'Arigato' or 'Ittai nani ga?!' just enjoy.**

**Summary: Hollowfication on a battlefield is not pretty and should be avoided at all costs. Now if only a certain Admiral knew this beforehand.**

**Why you don't mess with a 'D'!**

Shit.Shit, shit, shitity_ shit! _Can this day get any worse? One, I'm in the middle of a war between the marines and the pirates over the execution of my big brother. Two, I am in a war _after_ breaking in _and then out_ of the most secure prison in the Grandline and I am ready for a week long nap. Three, I have just freed my brother and now there's a frickin' hand sticking out of his chest. Yeah most people would be crying right now over the loss of their sibling BUT (and this is a BIG but) me and Ace have a secret, a special power or something like that, that means that if someone does manage to actually punch a hole in our chest, we don't die. Everyone opposing us however, are dead men (and women, we don't discriminate) walking.

So imagine my utter shock and surprise when Ace actually takes that hit through the chest for me, so what I'm really annoyed about is the fact that Ace was the one with a hole through his chest, although Ace getting a power up is a lot less scary than when I go nuts, seriously if you ever see me with any sort of hole in my chest, run, run while you still can, you waste a second and you're dead. Anyway, Akainu's smirking at me as if he's just ruined my life; I smirk and say in a deadpan voice "You put a hole through his chest." The admiral chuckles in, what he probably thinks is, an evil tone, seriously mate you have not heard Zoro chuckle when he's cutting down opponents, now that's scary, is he demon or what.

Akainu's laughing now and the whitebeard pirates are calling out mine and Ace's names and even Whitebeard himself looks shocked meanwhile I'm kneeling with Ace's head on my lap and combing through his hair as I can practically feel his transformation coming. I gently smile at him and say "Ace, any chance that you finish soon. Magma man is getting boring." Ace smiles at me and replies "Give us a second Lu, haven't done this in over 10 years now. I'm having a little trouble connecting the mask."

"Oh" I say "How long will you need?"

"Around 2 minutes, it won't take much longer than that; can you buy us that long?" Ace asks sarcastically, he knows very well that I can buy us 2 _days_ if I put my mind, and other _skills_, to it."

While we were talking the other battles had grinded to a halt as all the fighters, marine and pirate alike, turn to watch mine and Akainu's confrontation, well the marines would call a confrontation that but I call it a massacre. I don't move from my position as I hum softly and smooth Ace's hair and try to keep all movements to a minimal so I don't break his concentration. "Coward," Akainu taunts "you're a coward; you don't even want to avenge your own brothers death. That's cowardice, pure and simple. Of course I would expect nothing less from a pirate. Cowardly criminals are what you are." I laugh at his pathetic taunts to try and get me to fight him. "Dead," I say with no hint of grief or sadness in my voice, making people flinch and glare at me angrily in my apparent lack of emotion for my brother's death, I laugh again "Ace isn't dead."

Akainu smirks at this "What, are you in denial boy? I put a magma fist through his chest, he couldn't survive that." Some of the marines laugh at my apparent disbelief for my brother's death but I can also see that some of them are actually scared; they _know_ that I'm telling the truth; through their use of Haki they can _sense_ that Ace is alive. Among those few that can tell I'm not lying are Marco, Whitebeard, Gramps, most of the Shichibukai and the admirals (though Akainu is being too cocky to realise it.)

I smile sadistically and my voice lowers to almost a whisper but everyone in Marineford can hear my next words and I can tell that it sends a chill down their spines. "You can't _kill_ a 'D' that easily, why do you think I'm still alive? I've been in plenty of situations that would kill a normal _human_, devil fruit user or not, but I'm still here. So, the question is, _why?_ _Why_ am I still alive, Akainu?"

Akainu stutters and manages to force out a short "D-dumb luck." I smirk at his answer, as predictable as it is, and reply "So if dumb luck really saved me all those times…then what will happen when I use my _skills?" _I practically hiss the last word and smirk again as Akainu's left hand is cut off at the wrist, the hand that (I had decided) was way too close to mine and Ace's position, so I had got rid of it.

A sudden shock seemed to sweep across the battlefield as Akainu's left hand thumped onto the ground and I snickered "Was that dumb luck Akainu? Oh and a word of warning to you marines, don't get too close or a certain body part will hit the ground, but this time it won't be your hand but you'll certainly miss it. Though I do wonder…_will you be less of a man with it gone?" _The men on the battlefield shuddered as I smiled innocently at them and returned to my previous action of running my hands through Ace's hair.

"Oh and Akainu?" I smiled beatifically "If you ever call me a coward again I will personally make sure that you are…" I carried on but in a low whisper so that only Akainu could hear me and thus it was a testament to my imagination when he paled and started to back away from me, shuddering. A couple of people gave me strange looks when my eyes widened and I hurriedly placed Ace's head on the ground and backed away about 10ft. No one gave me strange looks when Ace burst into flame and started to rise from his position on the ground to a relaxed stance balancing on the balls of his feet.

His eyes glowed unearthly red and large ram's horns, which appeared to be made out of white bone, started to form on his head, the hole in his chest got smaller until it was right where his heart should be and tribal designs appeared to spiral outwards from the hole in various hues of red and black. Two red and whip like tails that seemed to have large forks on the end sprouted from his lower back and a pair of huge black skeletal wings sprouted from his shoulder bones, they were around 2m wide each and the tops arched above his head whilst the tips barely scraped the ground, thin pieces of grey-ish membrane covered the wings but they gave no indication of being strong enough to hold his weight if he could actually fly. His nails on his hands and feet grew until they were around an inch and a half long and became thicker and sharper before turning black. Finally Ace smirked revealing sharper teeth and canines that looked like they could pierce steel.

Everyone within 10ft of me and my brother seemed to shrink away in fear and they looked at me as if I was mad when I casually approached the so called Demon. I mean really a demon of all things, the correct term is arrancar, espada, hollow or Vasto Lorde, though I have no idea why we call ourselves those names, we just _do_, the names just seem to _fit_. Anyway, I walked up to my brother and slipped my hand into his "Ace, are you in control?" He gave my hand a gentle squeeze before saying **"Yes Lu."** His voice sounded layered and slightly distorted that usual but I shrugged it off because it was one of the usual side-effects of the transformation.

I sighed "Good" I whispered but I didn't realise that I was leaning into him until he slipped the hand that wasn't holding mine around my waist and pulled me flush against him. I sighed and let my body go limp in his grip and he let go of my hand to put both of his arms around me to keep my body upright. **"You okay Lu?"** He asked.

"Mmm…just tired. I haven't slept since before Impel Down and that was two days ago and I have enough injuries to kill a normal human twice over." The only thing that had been keeping me going were Iva's drugs and my adrenaline, the drugs had long since worn off and my adrenaline was dropping fast. Ace sighed and lifted me bridal style so that I could lean against him **"What would you do without me Lu?"** I grunted, too tired to answer and nestled into him whilst keeping my gaze locked in front of us (in the direction that Ace was facing), I wasn't going to miss this even if I was knocking at Death's door.

Ace loped towards Whitebeard and _everyone_, pirates and marines alike, moved aside and let him pass. I realised something with a start and quickly said "Ace? Do you care that we are on _every_ screen in the Grandline right now and that they now know about our abilities?" Ace shrugged **"It doesn't bother me and I know that it doesn't bother you. We were planning on doing something like this anyway so there's not much difference. Besides…who has enough power to stop two Vasto Lordes right now?"** I grinned up at him "I wish I was in Vasto Lorde mode right now, then we could rip this place apart together." Ace looked at me strangely **"Sadistic brat," **he muttered fondly **"Besides if you were in hollow mode right now then all these people would already be dead, well you might spare the allies and those that you liked, but you've always been the more bloodthirsty one. But you hide it very well." **The silence was deafening and I knew what they were thinking 'Strawhat bloodthirsty?! But he looked so innocent all the time, even on his wanted posters and he seemed so naïve!'

Ace ignored the stares and you-are-shitting-me looks and carried on on his path to Whitebeard. **"Have you told your nakama?"** I gave him a silly grin and laughed at the thought that I wouldn't tell my nakama "Of course, I told them all as soon as they joined and gave them all a warning to stay away if I go into my espada form. Did you tell yours or is this a surprise for them?" Ace looks a bit guilty at my knowing look and I can tell that he hadn't told his nakama **"I was planning to tell them, really but before I could I had to catch the traitor and then I got captured before I could switch forms by putting the hole there myself." **I could sense his hate for Blackbeard and self hate towards himself leaking out right now so I shifted myself until I was sitting on his arm and my head was next to his. I gave him a quick kiss on the forehead and said "Ace it isn't your fault; the traitor is to blame so…kill him when you next see him. Which will be soon 'cause I can sense him heading here."

Ace seemed to perk up slightly and I sagged back into his arms as the energy that I had used to cheer him up left me as abruptly as it came. **"So he is coming here then?" **I nodded, too tired to speak. By this point we were at Whitebeard's side and the old man was looking at us as if we were the weirdest things he had ever seen. Which quite frankly we were. **"Pops, stay still while I heal ya, I won't be able to get rid of all the wounds but the worst ones will close up at least." **A few seconds later, in which Ace's eyes flashed a demonic gold, and Whitebeard was fully functioning again. I tilted my head slightly and let my senses roam "Ace," I said quietly and he cocked his head slightly to show that he was listening "He's here."

Ace stiffened **"Do you want to fight the crew Lu? Do you have enough for that?"** I nodded and gathered up all of my reserves and let them flow through my body which gave me the appearance of lightning crackling across my skin. **"Okay you have enough."** Ace chuckled **"Stop doing that, Lu it tickles." **I let a smug grin cross my face and gathered my reserves back under my skin "'Do you have enough for that'… really Ace we both know that we never use all of our energy in one fight. _You_ were the one that taught me to hold some back in case of an emergency."

"**I know. I know. Just checking Lu." **In our short exchange Blackbeard and his motley crew had landed in front of us and Whitebeard and seemed to step back at the sight of Ace in his hollow form. Ace took one look at them and gently lowered me down so that I could stand on my own before turning to Blackbeard. Blackbeard seemed to ignore Ace for the moment and turned to Sengoku "I only became a Shichibukai to raid Impel Down and it was made so much easier for me when the Strawhat brat had already broke in first and had given me a clear path to level 6."

I scowled, this cheap skate had just used my, _my_, escape route from Impel Down to get more crew members, I did all the work! Oh they're going down, I turned to Ace "Can I kill them?" Ace didn't seem bothered by my question; he seemed to have been expecting it. Although I can't say the same for everyone else, they seemed to be shocked that the innocent strawhat captain would say something like this. I was anything but innocent, but they didn't know that.

"**Lu…" **I turned slightly towards him **"Devour them!" **My eyes widened as the implications of those words hit me; Ace was giving me free reign. But I had to check "Ace do you mean that?"

"**Yes, free reign." **I had to stop myself from exploding then and there. How long had it been since I'd last had free reign…I didn't know. I threw my arms into the air and cried out "YES!" The marines seemed to be stunned at my cry, the Blackbeard pirates were shocked at it and the pirates sighed as if this was exactly what they had been expecting all along. The Blackbeard pirates looked to their captain for an order, "Kill Strawhat!" He declared "I'll kill Ace!" They yelled and charged and Ace said **"Wait, let's let Luffy and your crew deck it out first. Then you can fight me one on one with no interruptions, Blackbeard."** The traitor seemed to consider the proposition for a second before nodding "Why not, but this means that Strawhat will have to fight _all_ of my crew." He gave a wave of his hand and a colossal giant appeared from the waves "Even Wolf."

Ace smirked **"Sure." **Blackbeard seemed a little taken back by Ace's easy decision but ordered the crew to attack anyway. I decided to deal with the giant last as he was the one who was the easiest target. I clawed my hand over my face and my hollow mask appeared (see link on profile.) I charged at them while they were staring at my mask and covered my hand in lightning before swiping it downward to cut cleanly through the man riding the horse, the slash cut him in half through the middle of his face and severed through the horse at the same time. The two halves fell with a wet thump and the Blackbeard pirates took a step back, too late now, they were as good as dead.

With another slash I took out the one with the top hat and hoop earrings, he was cut sideways through the stomach and was screaming as he went down; he would die of blood loss in a few minutes so I didn't see the point of cutting him again, then again Law could save him, even in this state, so I cut off his head after letting him bleed out for half a minute. I had to flip to avoid attacks from the one with a cigar and the woman as they attempted to avenge their fallen comrades. And placed two lightning hands on them while I was in midair sending a bolt through their heads, heating their brains until they exploded and my arms were coated in blood and pieces of greyish brain.

I flipped again before landing lightly on my, now bare feet (I had no idea where my sandals were), and I charged the one with the strange glasses and the gun. I spun to dodge the bullets, I had no need to but they would slow me down, and sent a blazing hand straight through his stomach and pulled out something long and thin, intestines or something. He choked on his own blood and I let him for a few moments before slitting his throat with my nails, they were really long and sharp when I was in partial hollow mode. Six down, three to go not including the giant.

I looked to my left where the Viking one and the one wearing a strange mask were charging me and sent out a wave of lightning that cut off their legs from the knee down and turned to the last one standing, the one with the long nose. I was now very bloodthirsty and decided to do this one slowly, I covered only my fingers and started to literally punch holes in him, they were only small, about 2 or 3 cm in diameter and I avoided his vital organs but there were many of the and having hole punched in you has got to _hurt_.

I soon got bored of punching holes in the guy so I dispatched him with a clear hole through his eye and into his brain and he fell with another wet thump. I turned back to the Viking and mask guy and covered my hands with lightning again before punching two holes through their heads killing them without pause. Now only the giant was left.

I turned towards the colossal being and cocked my fist like a gun before beginning to charge as much power into it as possible, this was going to be big and very draining on the reserves but it would take that giant out. Once I had forced as much power into my fist as I could I shot it out, my fist went flying out towards the giant's forehead. As my fist connected I let loose the power that I had held in it and a great spear of lightning arced through the giants head as I dragged my arm back and let it snap back to its original length, there was now a huge hole where the giant's face used to be. The body fell back, lifeless, and sank into the sea.

"**Van Augur, deceased. Jesus Burgess, deceased. Doc Q, deceased. Laffitte, deceased. Stronger, deceased. Shiliew, deceased. Vasco Shot, deceased. Catarina Devon, deceased. Avalo Pizarro, deceased. Sanjuan Wolf, deceased. All crew members of the Blackbeard pirates are dead, only the captain is left. So Ace, care to finish this?" **I rattled off asI gave my brother a cool look and ignored the retching of some of the less experienced marines; really couldn't they handle a little blood, well I digress, a lot of blood. I strode back over to Ace and ignored the stares of horror that were directed at me. I only stopped to tear a strip of cloth off of one of the bodies' clothes, which I then used to wipe the blood off my hands and face, having let my mask fade away a second before.

I lifted my arm up and clapped hands with Ace as I 'tagged out' and he 'tagged in' before going over to Whitebeard and launching upwards to sit on his shoulder. To his credit Whitebeard didn't even flinch and instead he turned to face the battle that was going to start soon between Ace and the traitor. Ace turned slightly towards me and Whitebeard and said **"Pops, keep Lu safe okay." **Whitebeard nodded and retreated a few steps to get us away from the blast zone. And Ace strode towards Blackbeard with a determined look on his face. 0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000

Ace's POV

I looked back at my little brother, who was barely hanging on to Pop's shoulder, I had to finish this quickly 'cause Lu needed sleep and medical treatment soon, before he collapsed. I turned back towards the traitor who killed Thatch and gave him a dark glare, he was going to die, and there was no doubt about that but how to kill him? I smirked as I strode towards him and he gloated about how I was weak and that he had beaten me last time and could do so again. Idiot, I wasn't in hollow mode that time was I? The comparison between my strength when I last fought him and my strength now was like comparing a puddle to the ocean.

"**Marshall D Teach, your crimes were murdering a fellow crew member and then fleeing from the Whitebeard crew and selling out your former commander to become a Shichibukai. I am your Jury, Judge and Executioner and your punishment is death."**

I let him come to me as he charged at me with that darkness power, but that wouldn't work on me, not in hollow form anyway. My hand shot straight through the darkness and I fixed a death grip on his face before picking him bodily off of his feet and spinning to slam him headfirst into the ground. There was a decent crater where his head had hit but I wasn't satisfied. I smacked him into the ground another couple of times but I was still unsatisfied. I threw him up into the air before firing a cero through his head, the fight (if you can even all it that) had been boring, maybe I could have a decent spar against Lu when he recovered.

I had a plan so I started to walk back to Pops and Lu, who was now in serious need of healing, **"Marshall D Teach, deceased. Current status of the Blackbeard Pirates, annihilated. Mission complete Pops. Can I have Luffy back now?" **I stated as I held out my arms so that Pops could give Lu back, he did so gently, lowering Lu down with one hand so that I could wrap my arms around my little brother and settle him against my chest. Lu was drained, I could tell as he grinned sleepily up at me.

"**As soon as we're on the Moby Dick and away from here we'll heal ya up and then you can sleep, okay Lu?" **He nodded and snuggled into my chest curling his arms around my neck. I sighed and turned to Pops **"Can we go now?" **Pops only nodded before raising three fingers up into the air and swinging them down to face the Moby Dick, it was simple pirate code for retreat and the direction of the fingers pointed out the ship we were going to follow for the retreat, all pirates without a ship would flock to the lead one which was, in this case, the Moby Dick.

Pops' signal sent a ripple through the pirates that had either resumed fighting or were staring at us, but before the marines could figure out what the signal meant; every pirate had already started to run towards their ships or the Moby Dick. Me, Lu and Pops thundered after them and were soon joined by Marco, Jozu and Vista, Jozu and Vista gave me some weird looks and Marco gave me the look that said that he wanted an explanation ASAP! But now wasn't the time so we continued dodging through the marines and avoiding the admirals and Shichibukai except for Jimbe and Hancock who seemed to subtly follow us and when we finally jumped onto the Moby Dick, Jimbe landed not a second later and Hancock was already onboard. (When had she overtaken us?)

I sighed in relief when the Moby Dick sank beneath the waves but I didn't realx until we were a good kilometre away. I passed Lu to Marco with a short **"Hold him for a sec, will ya." **Before lifting one arm to snap one of the Ram's horns on my head, before my instant healing could kick in I grabbed Lu back before wrapping my arms around him again and covering him in my 'power' so that he would be healed as well.

We were consumed by flames that covered us both like a blanket as they healed both me and Lu and when the flames died out the deck was unmarred and my extra appendages and hollow hole were gone plus the fact that me and Lu were almost uninjured, we had lots of bruises and Lu was exhausted to the point of collapsing but a good, long sleep and half a ton of meat would fix that right up. Although I was really hungry right now and was ready to resort to cannibalism, Lu was top priority and his nap was more important that meat.

I gently carried my little brother over to Pops' chair and settled down next to it, leaning on the side of the chair with Lu comfortably nestled in my lap with his head resting against my shoulder and neck and his hands wrapped around my back and one of my arms wrapped around his waist. I wordlessly took the offered thick spotted coat from Hancock (she was good!) and wrapped it around Lu before softly saying "Sleep Lu." And without further prompt he snuggled into my neck and dropped off.

I sighed again as I ran my free hand through Lu's hair before turning towards my expecting crew mates and Pops, "So…" I sighed "What do you want to know?" They practically burst into a babble of questions and demands and I hissed out "QUIET." They were immediately silent, "If you wake Lu up, he won't be very happy and you saw what he did to Blackbeard's crew." That seemed to dissuade them form raising their voices, the threat was very real and so, very effective.

The subordinates turned to the commanders who in turn, turned to Marco who sighed and asked "What happened earlier? What are Luffy's and your abilities? And why haven't we seen them before?"

"We call our abilities the hollow transformation. Earlier you saw me turn into a full hollow and you saw Luffy do a partial transformation. A full transformation we call Vasto Lorde mode and a partial is arrancar or espada mode, don't ask me why we call them that, Lu came up with it not me, but the names just seem to fit. As to why you've never seen it before, a full transformation is only initiated when either of us gets stabbed through the chest or just a hole through the chest; this provides the medium for our inner hollow to come out. You see, a hollow is a being that feeds on human souls and it's called a hollow because it has a hole where one of its vital organs is most commonly a hole where the heart should be and since we have an inner hollow if someone or something stabs us through the chest or makes a hole through our chest, we transform."

"So what did Luffy do, with the mask thing? And if Luffy was going to be okay, why did you take the hit for him?" Jozu asked.

"Well the answer to the first one is that Lu did a partial transformation. He doesn't get all the powers that he would have in Vasto Lorde mode but he does get some and a huge power boost. The second question has two answers; one is that Lu in Vasto Lorde mode is devastating. The amount of damage he does as a full hollow depends on how threatened he thinks he and his allies are, back there we were outnumbered and surrounded by high level opponents and Lu was severely injured and exhausted to the point of collapse. He would have razed Marineford to the ground, every threat would have been literally ripped apart, Luffy's main quality is loyalty to his nakama and allies if he thought that you were in danger then he would have killed everything to ensure that you were safe and that you escaped. Quite frankly if Lu was in full hollow mode at that point, Marineford would be a smoking husk right now. The second reason, I'm his big brother and there was no way that I was allowing someone to punch a hole through his chest if I had anything to do about it."

I tenderly ran my hand through Lu's hair again, I'm his big brother and big brothers protect the little brother no matter what. I turned back to the crew, "Any more questions?"

"Is everything that you said true?" Vista asked a little fearfully.

"Yes, everything I said was completely accurate; I might have been downplaying some of it actually." A shudder rippled through the crew as the impact of my words hit them. I sighed for what must have been the millionth time that day, I had no other wish right now than to fall asleep with Lu, I was tired and the effects of the hollow transformation were catching up with me.

Marco seemed to realise this as he offered me three thick blankets one of which I lay on the deck as a makeshift mattress. Once I had managed to half crawl half drag (to the amusement of the crew) myself and Luffy onto the makeshift mattress and balled up the second blanket as a pillow I shifted Lu slightly so that he was lying with his hands round my neck. Then I lay down on my back and threw the blanket over us both and settled down "If anyone wakes us up after less than 12 hours I will personally fry you before Lu slice and dices you." With my threat made I closed my eyes and ran my hand through Lu's hair again, just to tell myself that he was still here and he was alright. As I fell asleep I though, I love the hollow transformation, so use full, but the after affects are a bitch!


End file.
